


The Past, The Present, And The Future

by AshWinterGray



Series: The Alone Series [4]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Mother Joyce, Mother Karen, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 11:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17304164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshWinterGray/pseuds/AshWinterGray
Summary: It was just supposed to be a routine mission. Check an odd disturbance. Steve certainly wasn’t expecting to end up unconscious, nor was he expecting to see his futures. When he learns that Seven is dying, Steve sets out on a journey with Nine and Ten, the two with the powers of past and present, in a vain attempt to find Three, the healer of the experiments. He isn’t going to let his wife go without a fight. Meanwhile, the original group of Monster Hunters has to decide what they want to do with their lives, and if they want Steve to still be involved in that life, as well as Hawkins.





	The Past, The Present, And The Future

**Author's Note:**

> Eh. I figured, for this series, I would go on a limb. So here you go.

            They were, in fact, putting it off. Leaving that is. After the wedding with Steve and Seven, the former group of monster hunters had sort of stuck around. And it was making Steve feel visibly guilty.

            “You guys can go at any time,” Steve pressed gently one day when they were out for lunch. “You don’t have to stay here for me.”

            And it was honestly really hard to come up with a response that wasn’t going to sound like that staying for Steve was what they wanted. The thing was, they wanted to stay for Steve, to be there for him. But that wasn’t the case. They had left Steve alone to fight a monster, and he had suffered for it. Both his mental and physical being were scarred and damaged.

            Their Steve was mostly gone, only coming out in rare smiles. The shadow of a man who had lost too much.

            “Job hunting sucks,” Lucas ended up blurting out.

            And it was such a bizzare answer that everyone found themselves laughing. But it made Steve feel better about the situation too. He didn’t feel like he was holding them back.

            Hopper had to go back to work in Chicago a week after Lucas made his comment, but Steve got regular phone calls from the man. Nancy and Jonathan eventually had to get back to work in New York too, and although they didn’t call as often, Steve got regular letters and silly postcards from the couple.

            Dustin, however, was determined to stay near Steve. He hadn’t yet accepted the offer Doctor Owens had given him at the reformed Hawkins Lab for the sole reason that he needed to convince Steve this was a great opportunity. Not long after Hopper, Nancy, and Jonathan went back to work, Steve plopped an eight page essay into Steve’s lap that explained why Dustin planned to take the job.

            Seven made Steve read it. All of it. Steve could not argue with Dustin’s logic.

            The other five kids were in fact job hunting, and would often show Steve their applications to different places just so Steve would not fall into his depression. But the real change was Joyce Byers.

            She bought back her old house after much talking and convincing.

            “Maine was nice,” she told Steve as they both sat at the house where so much had gone down. “It was, really, but it would have been better with Bob. It just felt like something was missing. It wasn’t home.”

            “And where is home?” Steve asked, the doubt clear in his eyes.

            Joyce smiled that smile she gave to any child she took under her wing. “Here,” Joyce insisted. “Where everything happened. And sweetie, I am so, so sorry that I wasn’t there.”

            “It’s okay,” Steve chuckled as tears fell from his eyes. “Karen was nice. She stepped up and helped me.”

            “And I’m so glad she did,” Joyce beamed and pressed their foreheads together. “But Steve, you every inch my son as my two biological boys are, and I never should have left you.”

            Steve’s own parents had never really cared for him. They had never been there. So it was completely justified as he broke down in Joyce’s arms.

            Will seemed kind of relieved as he moved back in with his mother as he tried to job hunt. Even the kids seemed to ease at the familiarity and ease of the Byers house. Karen and Joyce often were asked to co-babysit whenever Steve had to go. Lev and Casey found it amusing that there were now two women who babysat them whenever Steve was gone.

\---------------------------

            The gate was closed, the Mind-Flayer dead, but that didn’t mean things were over. There were odd occurrences happening around the U.S. Sometimes they were nothing but a bunch of idiots, other times held something unexplainable.

            Steve and Seven were on their way to just such an insistence.

            “Rumors of seeing the past and the future,” Steve mumbled over the report as they drove off. “What on Earth does that mean?”

            “It means something interesting,” Murray Bauman grinned at them. “Personally, I would love to see the future. But looking back on my past wouldn’t be bad either.”

            “You need to straighten out your priorities,” one of the soldiers grumbled.

            Steve made a face. “The day Murray Bauman straightens out his priorities will probably be the day the world will actually end.”

            They arrived at their destination next, and the teams branched off. Steve and Seven went together but without soldiers, as they often preferred. And the soldiers would be the space between them. This time, Murray Bauman would be the voice helping them keep track of the areas they checked for the anomaly.

            After the attack nearly four years ago from the Upside Down, Bauman had gone out to try and find gates they may not have picked up on the Hawkins Lab radar. He returned after the Mind-Flayer was killed, and he had taken to helping those at Hawkins Lab whenever he could. He was nuts, but he wasn’t always too far off the mark whenever something strange would come up. So they kept him around.

            Steve and Seven had just switched sectors when it happened. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he was suddenly falling. He never found out if he hit the ground because he fell unconscious.

\-------------------------------

            The two people’s names were Nine and Ten, like Seven, Eleven, and Twelve. Nine had the power to see the past. Ten could see the future. And Steve had just witnessed the worst future he could ever possibly imagine. His wife, his Seven, had died at a young age because of her powers.

            They were back at Hawkins Lab now, checking to see if the vision Ten had shown him was right. Ten was a kind girl, shy, relying on her brother. Nine was a quite young man who gave off a strong, confident air. They’d been on their own for a long time with no idea that Brenner had died.

            Steve already planned to take them in.

            “What you saw was true,” Doctor Owens sighed as Steve curled around his wife a bit tighter. “She has a tumor growing on her brain, and one I don’t think we can stop.”

            “Check the others,” Steve demanded.

            With a nod, Doctor Owens left to do just that. Steve sobbed into his wife’s neck, wishing there was something he could do. But the tumor was too big to move. It would take a miracle to save her now. Everyone new that.

            Getting home that night, Steve was grateful for the company, but he loathed it too. He had just gotten married, and now he was going to lose her.

            It was the overload of her powers, the extent that Doctor Brenner had gone on her specifically to keep giving her powers. If he had kept building up El the way he had, she might have met the same fate. But none of the others suffered Seven’s fate.

            “I love you,” Seven whispered to him that night. “I’m sorry.”

            “I love you too,” Steve breathed out as he pulled her close.

            He sobbed himself to sleep that night.

\-------------------------------------------------------

            All of Hawkins seemed to take the news as if they were all simultaneously punched in the gut. It became a game of trying to protect Seven, make her live as long as she could to the fullest she could too. Tommy and Carol were rarely at their apartment anymore too, choosing to be there for a dying Seven, an agonized Steve, and the now four other people in the house.

            Steve was dying too, but he would have until he was at least 56 before he would pass away. He didn’t care about dying though because he wanted his death to be _sooner._

            The Hopper came back with a file in hand.

            “It took me forever to get this,” Hopper sighed as he plopped it in front of Steve, “but it may be the miracle you need.”

            Three: power to heal. Steve couldn’t believe his eyes as he read the file. Brenner had kept tabs on this particular experiment until his death. Three may still be alive. He could save Seven.

            Nancy and Jonathan had already gotten Jonathan’s reporter buddies to look into finding Three. Not to mention, Owens was already sending people out to search.

            “I want to go,” Steve said, bolting up. “Please.”

            “No,” Doctor Owens said. “You and Seven are both dying. The less pressure we can put on you both, the better.”

            “I can’t just sit here as my wife dies!” Steve roared back.

            “Yes you can,” Joyce admonished as she stepped into the house. “And you won’t just ‘be sitting here’. She needs you to take care of her. And you are going to do that while Will and his friends find Three. No arguments.”

            “She’s right,” Karen stated. “Now come on. Let’s get you both comfortable.”

            Steve managed a glance at the six as both women led him back towards where Seven was sleeping. Casey and Lev both grinned as they followed. The six were gone in minutes, piling into a car and driving off.

            Steve, with Seven’s permission, snuck out with Lev and Casey to go find Three. Erica and Shawn met them at Steve’s work van, and Nine and Ten were determined to tag along.

            “I don’t mind,” Seven smiled at Karen as both women complained about foolish men. “He would never forgive himself if he hadn’t been able to search and I still died. He wouldn’t be able to bear it. And he fears this future more than an army of Demodogs.”

            Steve’s future had him passing away in broad day light as he said goodbye to Casey and Lev, both older. Seven had died years before, and Steve was happy to join her in the future. But there were other problems. Steve was to die at 56 because of injuries that caught up with him. These injuries made him practically immobile, and Casey and lev were practically adults and looking after Steve. He hated being a burden, and that is exactly what he had been in the future.

            Neither of the two women could blame Steve for his choice.

\---------------------------------------

            It took four months of traveling to finally get wind of where Three might have gone. And by that time, Steve was ready to just openly sob. The kids regularly called home to their frustrated but somewhat understanding parents, and Steve spent his free time talking to Seven. She always sounded so painfully tired.

            “We’ll find him,” Lev promised. “Then we’ll fix you both.”

            Steve smiled sadly as he watched the other kids check the hotel room one last time.

            They were going to California.

            The last person Steve ever expected to run into was the person who greeted them at the little shop.

            “Billy?” Steve gaped.

            “Well, well, well,” Billy grinned. “If it isn’t King Steve. What brings you here? And with some new kids too. What? Your old kids not good enough?”

            “Nope,” Erica bit out. “Your sister, my brother, and their dumb friends all ditched him. Somebody had to take this idiot in so he didn’t kill himself.”

            Billy couldn’t seem to tell if Erica was joking or not.

            “It’s a frustrating job,” Shawn added. “He tries to die a lot. You should see his scars.”

            “So Harrington is suicidal,” Billy grinned almost playfully.

            “That’s an understatement,” Casey muttered just loud enough for Billy to hear.

            Billy looked taken aback, but Steve brushed it off.

            Steve grimaced and rummaged through his pockets. “I’m looking for someone I think works here,” he stated in a whisper. “He might be the only one who can help me.”

            Billy glanced down at the picture. “Don’t know him,” he said with a casual shrug. “But just out of curiosity, what could he possibly help you with?”

            “My wife is dying,” Steve said firmly. “Her name is Seven. And he is the only one with the ability to heal her.” Steve sighed, took back the picture and began to usher his kids out.

            Lev didn’t move yet. “He’s dying too,” Lev told Billy. “But Sev will die sooner than he will. Really soon.”

            “Let’s go, Lev,” Steve hollered back.

            Lev stared at Billy a little longer before racing after the others.

            Billy’s shop was one of many in California, so it became yet another month of driving to every store in California with the name Steve had been tipped with. Each empty turn just made Steve fall deeper into hopelessness.

\---------------------------------

            The six kids had been called back when Steve got his lead. Seven was dying quicker than expected, and she refused to tell Steve it was happening. With the kids and Steve gone, the six were needed to help Karen and Joyce make Seven feel comfortable.

            “He’ll never forgive himself if she dies before he gets back,” Mike muttered as they waited in the hospital waiting room.

            “He’ll never forgive himself for a lot of things,” Dustin growled.

            They were all frustrated and angry by the situation, but it was El who uttered the most heartbreaking thing.

            “Have you read his letters?” El asked as she pulled her box from her purse.

            Over the last nine to five years, Steve had written them all letters and placed them in boxes. None of them had actually worked up the courage to read them yet. No one, except El apparently.

            “He blames himself for everything,” El whispered fingering the open envelopes. “Us leaving and not calling, that promise we made. For those times we got hurt. For the bad memories. There’s even a letter in here where he blames himself for Will getting dragged into the Upside Down.”

            “That’s stupid!” Will protest instantly. “There is no way he had anything to do with that!”      

            El nodded, her finger stopping at a certain point with the letters. “They normally happened after nightmares that he couldn’t tell Kaya or Carol about. They were his only friends for a long time. Lev coming into his life was nice too, and his mental state fixed once he could tell people about it. He stopped blaming himself at this point.”

            “So what changed,” Max asked.

            “Papa,” El stated solemnly. “Papa hurt him, ruined him. Made him go mad almost like mama.”

            The six found themselves reading the letters Steve wrote them rather than sleeping. They made Joyce read her letters too, and even called Hopper, Nancy, and Jonathan to make sure they read their letters. Because it was never just the Demodog attack from last year. It was so much more. Steve’s mental state had crumpled until Doctor Owens gave him custody of Lev, and then Doctor Brenner had to ruin Steve’s mental state all over again. It was painful, reading over the letters, for all ten of them. They hated it.

            “I don’t care what Steve says anymore,” Dustin growled. “We are here for _him_ because he needs us _not_ because he is a burden.”

            They were in Seven’s hospital room, Dustin was pacing as they finished telling her about the letters. Lucas, Mike, and Will were scattered in chairs as Max and El leaned against Seven.

            “To him,” Seven began after a moment of thought, “it is the same thing.”

            That just made the six crumple more.

            “How can we help him if it only makes it worse?” Mike huffed. “Every step we take forward always goes five steps back.”

            “Figure of speech,” El explained to a very confused Seven.

            Sometimes the six forgot that Seven was not like other people. She was like El when they first found her, and she didn’t always understand everything being told to her. El, however, turned out to be an amazing teacher, and had gotten a degree in teaching at college.

            In fact…

            Will perked instantly, telling everyone to wait as he rushed out of the hospital room.

\-------------------------

            They had hit every single store possible in California, and their lead had been a dud. Seven was going to die soon. He saw it every time Nine and Ten would look at him. So they found themselves on the beach, Steve watching the sunset as the kids spent their last day in California trying to relax. Steve was not relaxed. In fact, he had cried himself dry, and it was clear on his face.

            “You’re a hard person to find, Harrington,” the familiar, taunting voice of Billy Hargrove reached his ears. “I mean, really. Took way to long to find you.”

            “If you are here to mock me then get it over with,” Steve sighed, his voice flat even to his own ears. “I don’t have much left to lose anymore.”

            “Oh, really?” Billy cocked a brow.

            And Steve laughed. Not a humorless laugh either. Pure, unearthly, hysterical laughter. Steve was more than aware of how broken he was.

            “I’ve fallen into a depression I can’t fight,” Steve said, still not looking to Billy, but a mad smile growing as he spoke. His voice sounded crazy, even to himself. “I was held against my will for months and slowly driven insane. I have night terrors that won’t let me sleep more than three hours a night. My body is going to slowly stop working to the point I won’t be able to move by the time I hit forty and to the point where I will die in my fifties. And my wife is dying of a tumor that won’t stop growing on her brain and I have a week to get back to her to say goodbye.” He finally looked at Billy. “The only thing I have left is those kids, and pretty soon, I won’t even have them.”

            Hands on either side of Steve’s head caused him to pass out to the alarmed shouts of his kids. And the only thing Steve could think was how the odd feeling that accompanied it was the most peaceful he had felt in years.

            When he woke up, he was in the back of his car, sprawled on the laps of Shawn, Erica, Nine and Ten. And he wasn’t wearing a shirt either. Casey and Lev were in the seats in front of them. The drivers seat was met filled with none other than Billy Hargrove, and it took Steve a moment to realize the van was pulling Billy’s Camaro.

            And Three was in the passenger seat.

            “He fixed you,” Erica flicked Steve’s forehead. “Well, the best he could with that face.”

            Billy burst out laughing and a chuckle came from Three. And Steve sagged in relief.

            It took him a moment to realize his scars were gone.

            With Billy driving, and then getting some of the kids in the Camaro with Steve awake, they made it to the hospital with Seven in three days. Three did his best, and they sent Seven to get more testing done with Doctor Owens’ insistence.

            The tumor was gone. Seven was going to live. As was their unborn child.

            No one really knows what to say to that. But Dustin pointed out that it would explain why she was dying faster than the doctors originally predicted. She was trying to keep their baby alive subconsciously.

            Steve was in tears again, but nobody said anything.

            Billy and Three left after that, moving back to California with the promise to return if absolutely necessary. Steve hoped it wouldn’t be, because Billy looked happy in California.

            Then there were the six.

            Will the clever genius he was, had actually found a way to keep them all close with jobs. El and Will were going to be teaching at the middle school with Mr. Clarke. It made sense, in a way, because both of them loved to teach, and it would keep them close. Steve found no fault in that. Lucas was a lawyer now, much like his father, and he got hired as a lawyer for Indiana, which meant he could live anywhere he wanted. Max was still looking, but she was moving in with Lucas by this point, so it wasn’t a problem. And Mike was just brilliant. He was staying close to Hawkins by joining Dustin in Hawkins Lab, but on a separate branch. Actually, he was Doctor Owens new assistant.

            “Why?” Steve asked them.

            “Hawkins is our home,” Max grinned at him. “It always has been, since 1983 and 1984. We were stupid to forget that.”

            And for once, life was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of an odd story. Not many people's taste. But I am obsessed with future fics where the original people have moved on and others need to step up to the task. So a little something something I came up with.


End file.
